Here at THE VINYL DISTRICTwe're good consumers. All Mp3's are posted to promote and give exposure to the music and are linked for a limited time. Please download to preview, then head promptly to your local vinyl vendor (or - OK, CD store too) and fork over your hard earned cash. You'll appreciate the piece of mind.
Got something you think we should be listening to or reading? thevinyldistrict (at) gmail.com
We're closing up shop a little bit early this week in celebration of another full revolution around the sun on my part. That's right - it's my birthday, so blogging be damned. We leave you in the ultra-capable hands of our friend Jon Sidel. See ya back here next week. —Ed.
Idelic Hour remembers NOMAG | Greetings from Laurel Canyon...
Sometimes, perched high above the Sunset Strip, I forget there is anything such as LA Culture. I would argue the best Hollywood culture often comes from what I call “misinterpretation.” You see, we Californians think we know what’s “going on” in art, music and fashion, but it's bullshit—we don’t. Our sensibilities are kooky, often not knowing the difference between the comic and the tragic. Here we tend to grind culture into mulch. LA culture at it's best is when, out of this garbage, California flowers grow.
Such was the case with Punk rock. Just when the scene died in both New York and London at the end of the 70’s, a new sensibility emerged out of LA and San Francisco. This week Reserve LA is exhibiting a series of photographs from a Bruce Kalberg the publisher and chief creative force behind NOMAG, the inspiration for this week’s Idelic Hour playlist. We asked Bruce to make a list of songs and fingered through a few NOMAG issues. We went from there, so check it for yourself...
...and check out some virtual issues of NOMAG here,here, and here.
From the City PaperCalendar:"On the surface, the Caribbean could be considered the quietest band that emerged from the wreckage of D.C.’s iconoclastic Smart Went Crazy in the late ’90s, but that description does the quintet a disservice: The group writes songs that are complex and elliptical and often perfectly tangled. It’s spent the last decade churning out breathy, meditative records at a steady clip, producing an impressive discography that’s not without its confrontational moments—its follow-up to 2007’s Populations should drop this year. The band’s singer, Michael Kentoff, is a masterful lyricist with a serious talent for short-form narratives and bemusing set pieces. He’s also, not shockingly, an excellent Twitterer."
The Caribbean is joined tonight by Baltimore's Small Surand I'm off to pull some records to spin before and in the middle. BYT's John Foster is lugging a crate of vinyl over as well.
Paul Weller's new single 'Find The Torch Burn The Plans / Aim High' is released in the UK on June 14th and in advance of its release, we've got our hands on a few remixes...
Man, you cannot go wrong with our friend DJ Nitekrawler'sMoneytown. I say it over and over again to anyone who digs SOUL with the capital 'S' or FUNK with the cap 'F' — GO.
In fact I said to him, send me over a LP cover that I can add to the top of this post and he nearly 'sonned' me. "Son, it's all 45's."
Which I respect with the cap 'R' of course. Nitekrawler gives us the details:
The night will still be occurring every 1st Friday, the talented DJ Guests and overall vibe will remain constant, but the new venue will add to that with a much better sound system, more dance floor space, a way better beer selection plus beer specials, and even a BBQ chef in the rear courtyard!
For the kick-off event I'm bringing down the heat, aka Pittsburgh's number one Northern Soul DJ, Gordy G.! Gordy has been involved in multiple high profile PGH parties including "Viper's Soul Club" and now the tremendously successful "Titletown." He regularly guests at soul parties from Ohio to Michigan. Now you get a chance to hear him kill it along side myself on the LMW wheels of steel. Will be a fantastic time, just DO NOT forget to tie those dancing shoes TIGHT.
DC native Laura Burhenn, she of The Mynabirds, returns to town this evening with a show at The Black Cat in support of what's become our favorite release to date for 2010, 'What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood.' It's made even more heartwarming to know we share a fondness for...well, let's have Laura tell it. —Ed.
My introduction to vinyl was through a Mickey Mouse record player my mom bought for me at a garage sale when I was about four or so. It came with a whole stack of storybooks and read-along records -- the kind that sound a bell when it's time to turn the page. I remember sitting in the attic for hours at a time, flipping the records over, screwing down in the little plastic 45 adaptor, playing them again and again. Ever since then I've had an intense love affair with *used* records. There's something about listening to songs that once belonged to someone else. You can imagine the sleeve in someone else's hand, them turning the heavy stock over, reading the song titles on the back, pulling the vinyl disc out of the paper sleeve, laying out the square page of liner notes on the table or floor, next to a mug of coffee or glass of wine, soaking the songs in, letting those melodies define their moment. Not that anyone drank a bottle of wine while listening to those Mickey Mouse records. At least, I hope not.
That last image comes more from my favorite used record of all time: Neil Young's "Harvest". I bought it from a Salvation Army store when I was in college. The cover was marked on the top right corner with "Ruth Tabor" in black ink pen. I loved not only that entire album, but the whole process of wondering who Ruth was. Did she mark her name on all of her records? What else was in her collection? Did this record feel lost without its others? Sometimes when I feel down, I steep myself a mug of tea, pull "Harvest" out of its "Ruth Tabor" sleeve, spread out some big sheets of paper on the floor to draw on, and drop the needle. Never fails to help me feel better.
I grew up in a really conservative Christian household. But beyond some of the records you might expect to find on the shelf (that I made some killer dance routines to, I might add), my mom kept some great classical records around as well. I remember Bach's Brandenburg Concertos most, the harpsichord spooling out complicated mathematics over the hum of a sunny afternoon. That's probably why one of my favorite used vinyl finds is a box of 53 records at a music library sale when I was in college—all 53 for just $3. There were some really incredible finds in there: Debussy, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Gershwin, miscellaneous collections of jazz standards, The Supremes covering the Beatles, and another favorite go-to: Dvorak's New World Symphony.
On any road trip in my childhood, my mom would name the year each classic pop song was released as it came on the radio. When I asked her how she did it, she admitted that she once had a pretty extensive record collection—before she burned them when she tried Mormonism briefly in college. This is one of the greatest vinyl tragedies I can imagine. So you can only guess how elated I was to uncover a missed stack of her 45s when I was visiting my grandmother one day back when I was in high school. Right there in a bottom dresser drawer next to her Mr. Natural Gemini t-shirt (which I cut short and wore to Lollapalooza in '94): Elton John, the Temptations, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind and Fire, the "American Pie" single that you have to flip mid-way through the song to finish it. (I love that people had the patience for that—that they'd listen the whole way through with the mechanical stop-flip pause from side A to B in the middle.)
My grandmother, by the way, had a great little collection of country and bluegrass records, lots of Hank Williams. Her husband was a coal miner in West Virginia before becoming a Methodist minister. He died before I was born and I feel like that record collection stopped growing when he passed. Listening to her records made me feel like I was getting to know him, what their life was like together.
When I was in high school I discovered what it was like to find a record and fall in love, to feel like that music defined who I was—like the person singing was the only person in the world who really understood me. I have some good brand-new-to-me vinyl finds from those days, including a limited edition pressing of Tori Amos' "Boys for Pele" on clear blue vinyl (which I got from the Intergalactic Garage in Shepherdstown, West Virginia—the lifeblood indie record shop I frequented that had all the best imports and rarities) and a hand-numbered pressing of Portishead's "All Mine" single from when I saw them play 9:30. But as much as I loved those records (still do), I really loved listening to my mom's 45s. Made me feel like I was getting a window into the past, finding out something I would only know by listening to her records. In that sense, I've always felt like vinyl is a real way of connecting people through time and space. There's something about the physics and physicality of it all. You have to touch the records, hold them in your hands. And they've got those grooves, little ranges of mountains that bounce sound around like people shouting "Echo! Echo! Echo!" into the air, into our eardrums, into our brains. And there it sticks. That, to me, is an incredible process—something that digital music (all summed up in 1s and 0s) will never quite do. I love working with Saddle Creek, a label that still values and puts out vinyl. They keep this whole cycle alive.
"The Chaos is a return to the blistering form of their self-titled debut. . .They have always had an unabashed sensibility for writing three-minute pop songs and this record is stuffed full of them. The Futureheads have made exhilarating order out of The Chaos. 8/10 —Prefix
...and that brand of chaos arrives at The Black Cat this Friday night (6/4) and in advance of the live date, we've got two copies of the new LP for two winners!
Craving Chaos? Enter to win the LP in the comments to this post telling us simply why you deserve to have this LP land on your doorstep. We'll choose two winners by noon on Monday (6/7) in the post chaos aftermath.
It's true - I'm delighted to have been asked to DJ between sets for one of my favorite DC bands, The Caribbean who are airing out some of the new material from their forthcoming 'Discontinued Perfume,' which arrives this fall on Hometapes.
It all takes place at The Black Cat backstage with a crate of records specifically chosen for the evening—plus there's word of a special guest who'll be popping by to spin as well.
Aw, c'mon...you've never heard of Keegan Snaize? Well, I hadn't either until this little Neil Finn-like gem landed in my in-box last weekend.
"Venus In Transit was written during an unexpectedly long stay on an island in the South Pacific - after becoming fascinated with tribal rhythms and Polynesian harmonies, we traveled around collecting stories, poems and old synthesizers and wove them into our own song.
A tale of lost love, unfulfilled promises and heavenly bodies, "Venus" is a band favourite and features beautiful harmonies from Hayley Hutchinson."
And it's wonderful indeed. Grab the full release here!
Right...you spent the previous weekend in sweltering 90 degree heat, around the pool or the barbecue pit, slathering on the tanning butter...but friends, technically it's still Spring. For three more weeks, actually.
And like you, I did much of the aforementioned and never got around to a 'Summer Giveaway' graphic...so we'll make do this morning, ok? All Spring-like.
Brooklyn'sThe National storm Constitution Hall in DC this coming Sunday evening (6/6) and in advance of their appearance we've got three (count 'em, three) copies of the new LP 'High Violet' to put in your hands.
I think Popmatters in their review of the new LP put it best, "For years, loving the National’s music has often meant reveling in the twinge of pain that comes when someone else manages to perfectly pin down and dissect a little piece of your psyche, which is why fans can get so inarticulate when trying to talk about what’s great about the band. As Felix Mendelssohn said, “The thoughts that are expressed to me by music that I love are not too indefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.”
High Violet‘s greatness, above beyond the fact that it’s a gorgeously arranged and performed set of songs of surprising tensile strength and grace, is that it rests its finger on some uncomfortably relevant truths about life after you no longer have the mental, physical, social or emotional wherewithal to spend every night at the bar and leaving the Silver City for somewhere quieter starts seeming like a good move. Anyone who loves this record probably has a very exact idea of how it touches on their own life, but most of us probably aren’t going to want to share."
Ready for your moment of self-reflection with 'High Violet' as a soundtrack? In the comments to this post when and how you turned a particular corner—in regard to The National or anything else that strikes you. That's it - just spill it.
We'll choose three winners for a copy of the LP and close this contest on Tuesday, 6/8 to give you some time after The National's DC appearance to let it all sink in and figure out what it all means. Remember to leave us some contact info too!
"I always like to give people an opportunity to hear a song in the form it was born in. And sometimes with a twist. That's what this recording is about."
...and that's what Allison Moorer's 'Crows' Acoustic EP is all about - a stripped down reimagination of her critically acclaimed Ryko debut, 'Crows.'
To mark its digital release, Allison's hit the road with a tour stop at The Birchmere this coming Thursday night (6/3) with Jay Farrar and as the graphic above imparts - we've got a pair of tickets to put in your hands courtesy of the fine folks at Ryko.
Winning the pair of tickets is simple—in the comments to this post plead your case as to why you're willing to reimagine your Thursday night plans to spend them with Ms. Moorer at The Birchmere—and the most convincing of the bunch sees the show on us!
Remember to leave us some contact info (important!) and we'll notify a winner by 5PM on Wednesday, 6/2.
Idelic Keeps On Keeping On | Greetings from Laurel Canyon. . . Memorial Day weekend is here. Does this mean summer or June gloom?
It’s coming up on a year that I’ve started doing radio shows and it only seemed obvious to use this week’s holiday as the inspiration for a playlist. Fact is, every day is Memorial Day on my turntable! It’s all about paying tribute the great artists and songs of the past while celebrating the new. By mix’s end it was really about just “keeping on keeping on!’
I did start my week thinking on a commemorative tip. I noted recent anniversaries of departures and arrivals; Miles Davis, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ian Cutis, Frank Sinatra and Johnny Guitar Watson.
Ultimately, I felt these angels sitting on my shoulder whispering “play us some new cats!” So indeed, this week’s hour is loaded with new releases from Midlake, Dead Weather, First Aid Kit, Luther Russell, School of Seven Bells, LCD Soundsystem, Toro Y Moi, The Cults and Flying Lotus.
A few weeks back Jon Sidel spun Jonneine Zapata's 'Good Looking' on what's become my favorite TVD feature, the brilliant 'Idelic Hour' which broadcasts here each Friday at the close of the week.
For the better part of the weekend I was singing to myself, "I'm good looking/you're good looking/What are we gonna do...?"
Well, it’s a wrap as they used to say in Hollywood. I sure have had a good time jawing with you about all this stuff that has happened to me at one point or another.
I had no idea when I came out to California when I was just 17 years old what would happen—I was scared shitless and I had only 1 phone number of this girl I used to know and 80 bucks in my pocket. I was determined to make something out of myself and I really wanted to be a rock star. Sometimes it seemed so futile and I had no idea how we could break through all the shit it would take to become famous—the industry was so aloof and impossible to reach. The bands and records we saw in record shops seemed to be made by gods not humans and it seemed impossible for us to ever get included in that world.
Well, we kept at it, and the more they said no, we said yes, and with each set back and defeat we got stronger, we refused to give up no matter how bleak and unrealistic it seemed. Even my own parents were dubious as to the success of what we were trying to do. But we loved music, we loved it to its core, it was the only thing that mattered to us, it was our food and our air, without it we would die.
It was hard place—California in the mid 1970’s—no one gave a shit about us, we were totally insignificant to everyone, we were thrown out of every record store and not one single record company would take our call, except for one, Gregg Shaw at Bomp Records….the same company that will now release my 13th studio album!
We are a living testament to what can happen if you don’t give up, if you follow your dreams no matter how ridiculous they may seem to others, no matter how hard it may be to keep going in the face of all opposition, no matter what the powers to be may have to say….my advice to you my friends, is to keep on rocking!
Thank you for listening in to the musings of your pal… —Paul Collins, NYC, May 26, 2010
How can you walk around the streets of Memphis and not write a soul song? It’s almost as if the oxygen there has been permanently bonded to sharp horn stabs floating in the air. As Canastamade our way down I-40 and crossed the Arkansas-Tennessee border, it was as if the ghosts of soul past and present jumped in the car and started humming in our ears.
Our good friend Rachel Hurley (aka Rachelandthecity) had set up an in-studio performance/webcast at Ardent Studios, as well as a show at the Hi-Tone for the evening. We hadn’t played Memphis before, and weren’t sure exactly what to expect. The strong musical history of Memphis was definitely well known by the band, so we were excited to see famous landmarks. But it didn’t truly speak to us till we walked through the hallways of Ardent Studios. Hanging on the walls were gold records by the like of Al Green, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. and the MGs , and The Bar-Kays.
The owner and founder of Ardent, John Fry, was soon introduced to us and immediately he made you feel like you were best buds from back in the day. He showed us some the classic equipment used on some of those gold albums, including a vintage vinyl mastering console. For techies, it was like the gold star-backstage pass. We soon found out that it wasn’t just Mr. Fry who made you feel at ease and comfortable, but the people and surroundings of Memphis itself. There’s something to this soul thing.
The next day we were treated to a personal tour of the Stax Museum by John. He had done work on so many of the these artists these great albums, and had the personal insight you couldn’t get from reading biographies. Each exhibits brought together live recordings and videotape from Stax’s top artists. Something about the combination of the mood of the town and people, along with music we were hearing connected everything flawlessly.
I have always been a fan of the Memphis horns, but I was blown away by the work ethic and creativity these guys had. They would hang around the studio day and night, and whoever happened to be recording would ultimately need horns at some point. They were the gold stamp on many of the best soul albums from the 70’s. You couldn’t help but be inspired, and the entire band knew when we returned to Chicago, priority 1 was writing a soul song.
Our next song writing session found us working something upbeat. Something that made you feel like summertime and nodding your head to the groove. We eventually came up with the name “Summer Soul Song” that was pretty literal in the mood of the tune. That song went through so many incarnations, but didn’t really capture what we felt.
During one of our retreats we revisited the tune and started experimenting with different variation. A smooth flowing organ and pulsing hammer-on guitar lick soon set the tone for that mood we sought so hard to capture in Memphis. Studio time brought the appearance of our much needed horns, and that gave us “Reading the Map Upside Down”. Listen, and you can’t help but let your head rock back and forth with a sly smile. Thanks Memphis!!
Enter to win Canasta's 'The Fakeout, the Tease and the Breather' on CD by simply leaving a comment, your name, and a contact email address in the comments to this post. We'll choose one winner each Friday for that week's giveaway which ALSO includes the entire Ardent Music catalog. (That's just 2 artists at this point, but who's counting?)
To hear more great Ardent Sessions please visit Ardent Presents.
Here we are in present time! I have just finished my newest record King of Power Pop and it will be released August 24th on Bomp/Alive Records. This record is a unique record for me as it was written over a very short space of time.
When I started my last record, Ribbon of Gold in 2007 I had about 4 months from start to finish and it was the first time in my career that I had a deadline for a record. Usually I would make a record when I had the songs, so there was never too much stress about the material. But Flying High, my comeback record so to speak, released in 2004, had been out for awhile and we had worked all over Europe and the States and my manager; Juancho told me if we didn’t have a new record we would have to stop touring.
By this point I was back making my living with music after a 10 year absence so the last thing I wanted to do was hang up my guitar again! We had met Chips Kiesby famed producer of Hellacopters and The Nomads at the Road to Ruins Festival in Rome and I walked up to him and asked him if he would like to produce my next record and he said yes! A few months later we were in his studio in Gutenberg, Sweden recording.
Time flies when you’re having fun, they say and pretty soon it was time to make a new record. On our last tour of the West Coast we played LA and our good friend Patrick from Alive Records came to the show. He was bringing me copies of The Nerves 'Live' which he had just released for me to sell at the show.
Alive had released The Nerves 'One Way Ticket' compilation and then The Nerves 'Live' and soon after that they released The Breakaways, the band that Peter Case and I had before we each went our separate ways with The Plimsouls and The Beat.
Patrick dug the show and when I told him we were getting ready to make a new record he said, well you should talk to Jim Diamond he would be great for you guys, he knows how to make great records fast! You need to make a record with someone like him he will capture your sound. Well one thing led to another and before you know it we were on our way to Detroit Motor City to make a record with none other then Mr. Jim Diamond himself.
I had pushed back the start time twice because I was worried that I didn’t have enough good songs, then in a moment of inspiration I sat down with my buddy Eric Blakely and we knocked out 11 songs one weekend and I knew I was ready to go….you will be able to hear the results on August 24th!
I was happy because I went back into my song book and took songs from almost every period of my writing, there are songs from The Nerves period, The Beat period and then there are songs written after The Beat in New York and then brand new songs, so it really connects the dots for me as a writer and musician.
“We could not tune our guitars; no one thought we’d go very far, but I got Friday on my mind!” —From “Kings of Power Pop”
"...Customers at Sunday's D.C. Record Fair at the Black Cat were looking for more variety in their playlist. They delved back into music from years gone by and discovered that rare find after thumbing through crates of records.
"A lot of the new music nowadays is just crappy. So if you didn't have the old school Chaka Khan, it's still new to you," DJ Adrian Loving of Southwest said of why vinyl records have begun to regain popularity. "You can still buy vinyl for pretty cheap; you can buy an album for, like, a dollar. Also, the idea of being retro and nostalgic comes in waves, and it's like, 'Oh, yeah, let's get vinyl and record players, let's go old school.' " Loving bought five records to add to his 5,000-plus collection, which he said he is hoping to trim to about 2,500 of his absolute loves."
I saw The Reverend Horton Heat a few years back and they were that shit hot I think I'm still trying to get over it. No, really - simply amazing live.
And in the spirit of passing along the badass musical goodness, we're got a pair of tickets to see The Reverend—who are touring in support of their new release "Laughin' & Cryin'"—along with Cracker and Miss Derringer, this Saturday night at the 9:30.
You have to act fast however! We need to close this one out on Friday morning at 10am, so the person who get at us in the comments with their spectacular plea for the tickets (with contact info!) will win the pair. That's it - we're going easy on you this time around.
Authenticity. You either have it or you don’t. And being the recipient of tens upon tens of emails from PR firms and artists inquiring about coverage here each week, I can tell you it’s in short supply.
Which is why I’m delighted to keep banging the drum for The Mynabirds, DC expatriate Laura Burhenn’s latest incarnation with what is quickly becoming my favorite release so far this year.
It’d do the record a disservice to compare it to something contemporary and I mean that as the highest compliment. It’s so otherworldly as to become an immediate classic. It’s eerie how ‘right’ all of this feels—like when I heard Nilsson for the first time—I’ve known these songs forever it seems yet they’re just appearing and making themselves known to me. Transcending perhaps.
And yes, this is high praise but don’t take my word for it. OK – do take my word for it. We’ve got 'What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood' to give away in advance of The Mynabirds’ homecoming appearance at The Black Cat next Wednesday, 6/2.
How do you get your hands on the record you're asking? Give us something authentic in the comments to this post—either about the band, Laura, or its short supply these days. Or where you find it thriving.
We'll choose one winner for the LP on the day The Mynabirds play the Cat—next Wednesday, 6/2. Remember to leave us contact info too!
I did the Merv GriffinShow with my band The Beat. Our record had just come out and this was one of the first promotional spots we had gotten. I was very excited as I had seen Merv’s show a million times before and I was hoping it would be just the thing to catapult us to stardom.
When we got to the TV studio they told us that Merv was sick and that Steve Allen was standing in for Merv. A bit of a let down but I knew who Steve was too and thought that it would be just as good. We did our first number, Rock n Roll Girl and then Steve came onto the set and did a short interview with us.
Steve is a comedian and unfortunately someone had told him we were what you called a “New Wave” act, which was all he needed to have some fun at our expense. Well, I was young and determined and I had already been from hell and back trying to make it in Hollywood and now I had more or less arrived and my manger was the world famous Bill Graham and I was not going to let anyone make fun of me on national television.
So I proceeded to make a real stink, yelling and screaming back stage to the point were everyone in the whole place knew that I was upset, including Mr. Allen. We came back out for a second appearance to do “Don’t Wait up for Me” and afterward Steve came on stage and said, “Well Mr. Collins what did you do before you became a Rock n Roll star?” That seemed much better to me and I told him I was a parking lot attendant. He smiled and said, “Who gave you your worst tip?” I said, “I can’t say but it wasn’t you!”
All the old ladies in the audience laughed and I felt that I had won the day. But the point of this story is that the whole time this was going on Roy Rodgers was standing in the wings waiting to go on stage, as I walked by him he held out his hand and gave me his million dollar smile and said, “Don’t Wait Up, alright!” Now that’s class!
These are things that have stayed with me over the years and I try to remember them so as to keep a perspective on what I am doing. I want to be remembered like I remember those guys, cool, helpful, and secure in what they are doing. You can learn a lot from people if just give them a chance.
